A Perfect Marriage Ruined Pt. 01

"I know, I know," Chris said empathetically. "You shouldn't forget what happened, but you also have to give her freedom to prove it won't happen again."

"Thanks buddy, you're right, and I'm glad things are going well at her job. Please keep an eye on things nonetheless," David said before hanging up.

*****

David felt better after talking to Chris, who seemed convinced that Anna was behaving. He then had a brief moment of feeling foolish for not trusting his wife. He reminisced back to the good days, where there was never a doubt or fear in the world that she would be unfaithful. That's the Anna he wanted to believe was the real Anna.

He shook out of his silent musing and focused back on his cell phone. He knew his next call wouldn't be as pleasant as his last one. He unlocked the phone and brought up his wife.

"Hi," she greeted.

"Hi Anna, it's me," David said clumsily, realizing she obviously knew it was him.

"I know it's you, babe. Sophie has been asking all morning about when we're going to the lake. Aren't you excited?!"

Shit, David thought. As if I already didn't feel bad enough.

"Anna, I have some bad news... I'm not going to be able to go this weekend," David said, followed by silence on the other end of the line. He continued, "They want me to work this weekend while the plant is shutdown, so I have to leave town today."

This wasn't what she wanted to hear, and her unhappiness was evident by the tone of voice in her curt reply. "But the trip. We planned on going to the lake."

"I know," he replied, "But it has to be done. I need to earn some money too. We can't just depend on your income."

"But Sophie was looking forward to this so much... and I... I thought this would be great for us... our first trip away in years it seems. Our marriage... it would be great for our marriage."

"I know, I'll have to make it up to her," he said, clearly avoiding her bringing up their marriage. He knew they planned to talk about the state of their marriage and how they could improve it, but he felt awkward addressing it over the phone at the moment, especially since she was currently at work. That kind of talk could wait until he was back and with her in person.

There was a pregnant pause in the conversation. Anna chewed on her lower lip trying to think of something to say. Why was it so hard for them to communicate these days? They'd always been able to chat inanely about all sorts of things for hours. But now...

"And you're leaving now?" She asked.

"Yes, as soon as I load up the car."

"I'm not even going to be able to say bye to you in person," Anna said with a frown.

"I'm really sorry, babe," David said in return.

"I just wish we wouldn't have spent all that time packing up my car, but I understand, life gets in the way," she said disappointed, but compassionate to his plight.

"Anna, you and the girls can still go up there if you want, you're already packed and ready," he said trying to soften the blow, while fully realizing she was unlikely to do that.

"You know I don't feel safe going up there alone with the girls, and besides, it's... it's not the same without you there," she said with a longing in her tone. This made David feel warm inside yet sad that plans had been canceled. But alas, duty calls.

"Yeah I know. Look Anna, I have to go now," David said, noticing that his new boss was calling him.

"Oh... okay," Anna replied tersely. "Take care... I love you and I'll miss you."

"Yeah, same. Kiss the girls for me," he said terminating the call.

Chapter 14

When it came to how Chris was going to pull off bedding Anna, his first objective was to calm David down, and he felt he accomplished that over the phone earlier when reporting on Anna's work behavior. He reasoned that David needed to back off a bit with his suspicions, which would give Chris some room to work on her. He didn't need David breathing down her neck and building walls around her.

Interestingly enough, David dropped a gift into Chris's lap during the phone call by telling him he had to bail on their family weekend trip to the lake, which surely would make Anna upset because she wanted to use it as marriage therapy. Chris immediately saw this as an opportunity, and he figured her disappointment in her husband could give him a leg up. Especially if he could cast some shade on David's story.

*****

It was later that same day when Chris wandered into the offices of Lowery Finance and made a beeline straight to Anna's desk. There she was in all her glory. She was wearing a form-fitting black dress that ended mid-thigh, and her long blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail that flowed down in front of her left shoulder. That was the cutest thing about Anna - she styled her hair differently most days, and it usually went perfectly with every outfit.

She was wearing glasses today that made her look studious and oh so fuckable. While she was engulfed in reading something on her desk, he slumped down into the chair opposite her. She looked up and smiled thinly.

"Chris! I was wondering when I'd see you around here."

"Morning beautiful," Chris quipped, "and how are you today? Nice shoes by the way," he added taking an exaggerated sideways look at her legs that she definitely noticed. He felt his cock twitch. She was showing an awful lot of shapely thigh. No wonder Hank put her on display in the front. Fuck, her legs are incredible. They'd look even better wrapped around me.

"Fine thanks," she replied somewhat glumly, while ignoring his flirtation.

He knew she had to be disappointed after David cancelled their plans, so he scrunched up his face and steered straight into it. "Uh-oh, you're lying, I can see unhappiness on your face. What's the problem?"

She pulled a face before replying. "It's David. We were supposed to go to the lake..."

"Ah," Chris interrupted, thinking, now's the time to deliver the blow. "I heard about that on Wednesday when I spoke to David."

Anna shot him a look. Chris had his best poker face on, knowing he had to pretend he didn't just blatantly lie.

"Wednesday?" Anna said with a look of horror on her face.

"Yes, he called me Wednesday," Chris said matter-of-factly. Fuck, I hope she buys it.

"And what did he say?"

"He said his boss asked him if he'd work this weekend."

Anna looked like a ghost. "He told me he just found out this morning."

Chris gave a confused look, then a guilty expression as Anna stared daggers through him.

"I'm sorry Anna. I figured he would've told you then."

"Well, maybe he didn't know for sure he had to go?" Anna said, trying to grasp to some kind of reason why he wouldn't have told her. "Maybe he didn't want to cancel the trip if he wasn't for sure he had to go?"

Chris didn't say a word, he just dropped his eyes to the ground when she said that.

"What? What do you know?" she asked when she saw his face was hiding something.

"Anna, he said the work trip wasn't required, it was optional," he replied gently. "Look, since you and I have grown closer lately, I'll be real with you. He told me he isn't keen on taking a family trip, so this was his way out. I'm sorry."

"That asshole!" Anna said thumping her fist on the desk, causing heads to turn and look. "He waited until today to tell me? He even made us pack last night! I'm going to call him right now and..."

"No, no, no..." Chris said cutting her off, knowing he would be busted for lying if she notified David. "Anna, keep it down. Keep your cool," he said lowering his voice, so that people would stop looking their way.

"Fine, I'm going to go outside and call him," she said as she swiftly got up and hurried out of a side door. Chris followed behind as inconspicuously as possible. I can't let her call David, he thought.

"No, Anna!" Chris said once he finally caught up to her outside. "Look, you can't say anything!"

"What? Why not?" She asked, clearly steamed. She had her phone in hand, ready to call him.

"Because, if he knows I told you that, he'd want to kill me. And he'll never talk about you again to me. You want me to give you scoop, right? To tell you what's going on in his head? If you tell him what I told you, that's over."

"Are you suggesting I should act normal around him, after what you just told me? Not possible!" she said crossing her arms.

"You should act however you want, just don't spill the beans I told you that. I'd get in so much trouble with him."

There was a pause as Anna's mind tried to process everything.

"Our daughters," Anna finally said staring off into the sky. "He doesn't even want to spend time with our daughters?"

Chris figured he should try to reign it back some. Sure, he wanted to create some distress in their marriage that would enable him to finally get into Anna's knickers, but he wasn't interested in creating a rift between David and his children.

"Look, Anna, he loves his daughters and was hurt having to miss out on a weekend trip with them. The whole reason he's working this weekend is so that he can provide for them."

Anna glanced at him with confusion.

"You told me it was because he didn't want to spend the weekend with his family!"

"Well..." Chris sputtered, "It's mostly because he wants to work and make money."

"Mostly? Chris, what exactly did he say?"

"He said he wants to work and make money, but that he also wasn't sure he wanted to be around you, having to act fake about trying to improve the marriage... and..."

He noticed there were tears forming in Anna's lovely eyes, her anger having turned into sadness.

"And?" she said, waiting for him to continue.

Chris looked down for a few seconds and thought, I need to get out of this conversation and not upset her more. Remember, use this as a way to get her to meet with me in private.

"Anna," he said compassionately, gently taking her lovely hands in his. "This is a complicated situation as you know, and I can tell you more, but I have to get going, and you have to get back to your job. Let's have dinner later, okay? I'll text you in a few hours and we can make plans."

"But David... he..." she began to say before he cut her off by putting his arms around her and hugging her close.

"Shhh... don't worry about David right now," he said into her ear. She sobbed a bit into his shoulder. "You need to get back to work... you need this job, remember? We can talk about it later, okay?"

Anna only nodded her head, which was still nuzzled into his shoulder to hide her sobs. After a minute, Anna was able to get her composure together. She and Chris released their embrace.

"Sorry I got some tears on you," she said smiling and wiping his shoulder a couple times with her hand.

Damn, she's so beautiful when crying, he thought to himself. Her eyes and cheeks were puffy and red from crying, but it only made her look cuter and more vulnerable. He contemplated moving in for a kiss, but he realized how disastrous that could turn out.

He still wanted to flirt while she was in a vulnerable state, so he shifted his gaze to her tits. So nice and plump, and I can see the outline of her bra underneath that black fabric of her dress in the sunlight. Maybe I'll spot her nipples if I look hard enough.

She clearly noticed him staring down at her breasts. But inexplicably, it made her smile.

"Chris... right here," she said pointing two fingers at him, and then turning them around to point back at her eyes. He shook himself out of a daze.

"Oh, right... sorry. They're just so... amazing," he said with a smirk as he diverted his eyes to hers. But then he purposely let his gaze fall back down to her boobs. She only rolled her eyes and shook her head but kept her smile.

"I've got to get back to work," she said turning towards the office. He watched her walk and admired her toned calves, shapely thighs and taut ass as he said bye to her and told her he'd text her in a bit about dinner.

She didn't get pissed I was blatantly staring at her tits, he realized. I'm making progress. Sorry David.

*****

Fortunately, Anna felt better after shedding a few tears. She had gone straight to the restroom to freshen up after saying goodbye to Chris. Cleaning her face wasn't as difficult as she figured, since her glasses kept her mascara from trickling down her cheeks. She didn't often wear glasses, only wearing them when she wanted to look studious with particular outfits, so she was grateful she had them on today.

When she got back to her desk she had a strong urge to call her husband and give him a piece of her mind, but she had to get back to work, and besides she couldn't hang Chris out to dry like that, not after all the help he's provided. Perhaps she could grill David with questions when he gets back and force him to admit it was his choice to bail on the family trip!

She looked at her desk planner and considered penciling in dinner tonight with Chris, but the thought of going out to dinner with him made her weary for two reasons.

For one, she had planned on scooping up her girls after work. Certainly, she could have her mom keep them overnight, but she felt guilty that this was supposed to be a family weekend, and here she would be bailing on her daughters like David already did.

Secondly, even though she had already been meeting with Chris occasionally for coffee without telling David, it would be hard to hide a dinner date from him considering he'll want to talk to Sophie tonight. She didn't want to explain why she left the kids with her mom to go out to dinner with his friend, when at the same time she was giving him a hard time about bailing on his family.

She thought back to her last appointment with Theresa. Her therapist had told her to go live her life, to not be sheltered by her husband, to discover what she wanted in life and where David fit into that. That if he wasn't going to fill her needs, she should move on and consider looking elsewhere. Anna went back and forth on whether that was appropriate advice to follow.

She was confused, but she figured the weekend away with David would have provided her much needed confirmation. The state of their marriage had been getting better of late now that income was coming into the household; she figured the weekend trip would be huge springboard to get their marriage on the right track. But nope, David bailed on the trip and set their progress back, and now she was left confused as ever.

Going to dinner with Chris would be a good way to relax. Though, she had to admit Chris had been quite flirty of late, making no secret today in checking out her legs and boobs. After having a second child and fluctuations in weight during pregnancy, she had to admit it was extremely flattering to receive that attention, even if it was coming from a known horndog.

She wondered if Chris really admired her that much, or if he was just fooling around for the sake of being funny or cheering her up?

There was a time - in what seemed like a lifetime ago - when she couldn't stand Chris and he made her skin crawl. But she had come around on him lately and even found herself understanding why women might be attracted to him. He's always been a guy obsessed with boobs going back to the first day she met him in college when he had posters of big-breasted, bikini-clad women plastered all over his apartment's walls. That he appeared to be mesmerized by her boobs today - even concealed in her dress - wasn't surprising. She only wished David showed as much appreciation for them.

Speaking of the devil, David suddenly called Anna, startling her from her trance.

"Hi honey," he said when she answered.

"Hi," she said flatly. David immediately picked up on her tone and figured his wife may have gotten more upset after letting the cancellation marinate.

"Again, Anna, I'm sorry about this weekend, I..."

"I'm sure you are," Anna said cutting him off, again in a flat, dismissive tone.

"I am," David said genuinely.

Anna wasn't going to play this game. She knew she couldn't reveal what Chris told her, but that didn't mean she was going to sit there and play dumb.

"I'm sure you are," Anna repeated. "What do you need, David? I have work to do." She started typing a work email, purposely acting pre-occupied, knowing he could hear her fingers tapping on the keyboard. There was a noticeable pause in the conversation.

David became steamed on the other line. He hearkened back to Chris saying earlier that Anna tended to make things all about herself. Maybe Chris was absolutely right? How could Anna be so cold to me when I HAVE to go to out of town for work? Weeks ago, when she insisted that SHE had to go back to work, she was mad at me for disagreeing. But now that the shoes on the other foot, she pulls an attitude with ME?

"Why are you making this about you? It's selfish. The world doesn't revolve around you, Anna," David said harshly, clearly letting his emotions spill out. Anna was incredulous, but she knew she couldn't have a meltdown while at work, so she kept her cool.

"David, this isn't about ME or any one of us. It's about us together as a family, as ONE."

As she said this, she became a bit choked up, feeling like she could cry again, but she knew she needed to keep it down.

"Yes, a family I'm trying to provide for!" he replied angrily.

"I'm NOT going to talk to you about this right now," Anna said not wanting to create a scene.

David on the other hand was completely at a loss for what to think, obviously unaware of the lie Chris told his wife. Why the fuck is she so mad at me? Maybe she's just having a bad day unrelated to me? Maybe I did something else to piss her off, like forgetting to flush the toilet? I should just leave her alone and let her mood pass, instead of arguing with her. We can talk about it another time when her attitude changes.

"Fine, we'll talk about this when I'm back," he said. "Have Sophie call me later."

With that, he hung up before she could even reply.

"Dav..." she began to say before realizing he hung up. She huffed and put her phone down sharply on the desk, causing a couple of co-workers to glance over. She finished typing the email she was working on, realizing her tone of the email probably reflected her current mood.

She couldn't believe the nerve of David to question her character. He bails on the family trip on purpose, lies about it, and then calls me selfish when I'm not happy about it? We're at a critical point in our marriage, and he seems aloof to it.

She thought about what Theresa would advise her to do. She'd probably tell me I don't deserve to be treated this way, and to go out and have a nice night with people who appreciate me.

Suddenly she didn't feel so bad going out to dinner with Chris.

Chapter 15

Anna had lost her focus after David hung up on her. She decided she'd have dinner with Chris tonight after-all. She wanted to vent to him about David and knew he would be a good listener and advice-giver. She put her work aside for the moment and texted him.

- Ugh David just called, I'm so aggravated. -

Chris got the text while he was driving home. He normally didn't text and drive, but it was Anna and he couldn't resist.

- You didn't tell him what I told you did you? -

- Of course not! I didn't even mention you. -

He was a bit worried that his lie might backfire. He hoped Anna would keep quiet or this whole situation could blow up in his face.

- Good! -

She wondered why he was so concerned about David finding out what he said, but she reminded herself that they're best friends, and she knew David would be irate to know Chris was reporting on him behind his back. She tapped out another text.

- He had the nerve to call me selfish and say I think the world revolves around me. Can you believe that? -